Space is the place
Mira Keratová 

Art historian and curator Mira Keratová explores divergent perspectives of East and West on the artist’s work and position. Stano Filko’s artistic work begins in Czechoslovakia (today: Slovakia) in the 1960s, a time when artistic freedom was severely limited. While the socialist régime established a one-sided view of the world, Filko is known for his attempt to depict in his art the overall context of the world as an external and internal reality. In 1981 Filko emigrated, he lived and worked in Germany (Düsseldorf) and from 1982 in the United States (New York), returning to Bratislava in 1990. These biographical stages also roughly divide the various phases of the work into which the respective framework conditions can be read. Especially in the early phase of the work — when the System SF comprised only three colours — Filko played with a national identification of his home country, which he was editing to a more colorful and international version.

Another focus of her consideration is the artist’s sometimes very problematic concept of gender. Filko’s self-mythology deals with male clichés and propagates an image of the artist that is strongly defined by male gender. From today’s perspective, this requires at least a critical examination.